KAZUKI MASAKI 間﨑紀稀 PORTFOLIO
The University of Tokyo Deptartment of Architecture Graduate school of Engineering
00. STORY OF CITY'S TRANSFORMATION
Brief Statement
12/23/2020 Kazuki MasakiI was born in Tokyo and have been commuting by train since I was four years old. As I rode the train, the sight I saw from the train window became the city for me. That view changes as the city is developed. During my travels around Tokyo, I have witnessed dramatic changes in the city as it has developed over the years. This experience has made me very interested in architecture in changing cities and the stories of transformation.
I thought that the story of a city could be told through its architecture. Cities are a mixture of the old and the new, and have a charm that cannot be captured. If architecture can achieve the same chaos and ambiguity as cities, I believe that people will be able to get closer and more familiar with cities. I have named this attraction "the possibility of other interpretations". Architecture, like a city, needs to be able to be interpreted in different ways by different people. In order for architecture to be given various meanings, symbolism, and interpretations at the same time, the composition of the architecture as well as its narrative and expression must be well designed.
I strongly felt that Princeton was the most suitable place to learn these things comprehensively. There are many strong architectural theorists at Princeton, and through discussion we can expand the possibilities of architectural interpretation. In addition, Princeton offers a wide variety of courses, such as digital technology, film, and environmental analysis, which will allow me to design architecture from multiple perspectives.
My architectural designs are based on in-depth research and my personal interpretation. hope that studying at Princeton and discussing with students from different backgrounds will add new methodologies to my architectural design. At the same time, I will be able to contribute to the diversity of Princeton by sharing my perspective with others, having lived in Tokyo all my life.
In recent years, I feel that the landscape of cities around the world, not just Tokyo, has become increasingly homogenized. Still, in order for people to love cities, architectural design needs to work critically.
01. WHOSE CITY IS IT?
Graduation Thesis Project
2018.12 - 2019.2
Instructor: Kengo Kuma, Toshiki Hirano
Akihabara, Tokyo
Exhibited in Monsterexhibition 2019 , Shibuya Hikarie, Tokyo
Akihabara is a city where the desires of many different people swirl together. Akihabara, one of the world's leading "otaku culture" cities, is bustling with people from all walks of life, including otaku, couples, office workers, and tourists.
However, there are many redevelopment projects underway that have the potential to consume Akihabara's culture and a certain sensuality as capital. Someone is remaking the city for himself, and many people are just staring at it blankly, oblivious to what is going on.
This project aims to turn the town of Akihabara into a theme park, and to acquire an aesthetic for the future beyond the current redevelopment. As we accelerate the frivolous treatment of otaku culture and the repetition of the profit-driven reference plane, a new legitimacy emerges in the landscape.
Whose city is it? What is beyond, and who is there?
History of Akihabara
Redevelopment and Desire of Akihabara
Otaku people, who go back and forth between virtual space (fiction) and physical space (reality), have lost interest in real space. The world, which should be confined to the individual's private room, appears in urban space and forms the city. The closed windows, lurid signs and facades, densely displayed products, the city has lost its sense of space. A city that has lost its sense of space has unintentionally created a new urban space.
At the same time, the city has been transformed into an office district through largescale redevelopment around 2006, and into a tourist destination for the 2020 Olympics. Office and hotel developments, which are constructed by acquiring a cluster of multi-tenant buildings, mass-produce homogenous floors and rooms to satisfy their own desires, losing or symbolizing and diluting the individuality of the city.
The two are never at odds with each other, but at the same time, they are fellow countrymen who have decided to be indifferent to space. True to their desires, people who have abandoned their interest in space are reorganizing the city.
The multi-tenant building in Akihabara is full of personal tastes that are not conscious of others. People in Akihabara have no interest in space with others, such as narrow entrances, closed windows, and overcrowded product displays, and they accumulate
independently of each other. Eventually, they lost their meaning, were symbolized, and became objects of animal consumption.
Simultaneously as the symbolization of Akihabara's culture, redevelopment has led to the emergence of hotel and office buildings that repeat a homogeneous reference plane. It looks in contrast to the miscellaneous landscapes around it, but it is the same in the sense of indifference to others and space.,
Akihabara, which has a large number of symbols such as radios, home appliances, personal computers, nerds, office districts, and tourist spots, swallows everything according to capitalism. Any state is allowed there anymore.
What will the city look like in the future, including all relationships, both conflicts and connections? Can it be someone's city or anyone's city?
Therefore, in this project, architecture is created by ignoring the properties and relationships of objects and connecting them. By collecting the objects of Akihabara, the meaning is diluted while making you feel like Akihabara, and it can be interpreted as different.
Turning Akihabara into a Theme Park
While losing interest in and sense of space, the development of symbolic culture, ubiquitous desire and real estate accelerates. In order to satisfy their own desires, huge volumes surround the city of Akihabara and form a closed theme park. While offices and hotels relentlessly produce floors in pursuit of economic efficiency, subcultural desires are directed to the inner city, turning the city into a theme park. In the closed world, no one pays any attention to the real world, and the city is filled with individual hobbies that amplify the nature of Akihabara for each person. In the theme park of Akihabara, visitors can immerse themselves in the world they desire, surrounded by the world of Akihabara. Immersing oneself in one's own world makes one lose interest in others and plunges into a cycle of becoming more and more involved in the world. The individual's worldview creates the city, and the city amplifies the worldview. The urban experience here is an addiction. People who have entered the world continue to consume without being aware of what is happening in the city. The city swallows up everything, but what and who is there beyond?
Collage Every Element of Akihabara
This architecture is created by cutting and pasting the desires of Akihabara incessantly. Each individual has his or her own personality and creates chaos in Akihabara, but these personalities are separated from their contexts and only accumulate in a dense manner. In the process, the individuality is symbolized and begins to lose its meaning.
Like people who consume symbolic individuality like animals, this architecture simply absorbs what is in front of it to an extraordinary degree. Arbitrarily selected objects are stripped of their meaning, connecting and disconnecting to create a whole. There are no rules or laws, and anything is allowed to happen.
02. THE MEMORY
Architectural Design Studio #5 2017.09 - 2017.11
Instructor: Toshiki Hirano, Koji Aoki Nihonbashi, Tokyo
Honorable Mention
Presentation at Joint Studio Review with Waseda Univ. as a Representative
The Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway, Syutoko Highway, built in the wake of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, runs in a ring around the Imperial Palace in the middle of Tokyo's skyline, but in recent years has had to be renewed individually depending on the circumstances of each location.
Near Nihonbashi, the elevated Syutoko Highway, once a symbol of the modern infrastructure of a glorious future city, is now seen as an abomination. In a complete reversal from the days when the Japanese believed that a new bridge should be built there because of the popular spirit of the Edo-derived people overlaid on the name of the place, the removal of the bridge has been called into question by landscape theory.
In response, propose a successor method for the differences in the beauty of the landscape between the ages.
This tower will carry on the various memories of Nihonbashi and lead people towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Inspired by the infrastructure scale of the Syutoko Highway, we designed a space to experience its historicity and civil engineering dynamism.
Inheritance of the Memory of Transportation
Nihonbashi has been prosperous as a transportation hub. Although it is decided that Syutoko Highway will be transferred to the underground, I consider it as a memory and a symbol of the economic growth in the 1960s and the Tokyo Olympics 1964. I also interpret the fact that Syutoko Highway looks ugly for some people as a change in the sense of value according to the diversification of the world. So in this project, aim to create an architecture giving each people various interpretations of it as well as representing the memory and history of Nihonbashi. From the forgotten memory of boats to possibly ugly one of Syutoko Highway, this project takes all of these historical facts into consideration as much as possible.
New Waterbus Route Masterplan Site Plan
The first Nihonbashi bridge was constructed in 1603 as a starting point of the Five Routes to Edo. Nihonbashi area was prosperous as a transportation hub for boats and ships.
Current version of Nihonbashi bridge was constructed at the same time when Japan stopped exclusion of foreigners and got modernized.
Towards the Tokyo Olympics 1964, the Metropolitan Expressway (Syutokoh) was constructed above Nihonbashi bridge at a rapid pace. It seemed symbol of economic growth at that time.
Recently, the plan that transport the Highway to underground was decided because the highway above Nihonbashi bridge is regarded as ugly as the landscape of Nihonbashi area.
AREA
Creating Programs for Tourists
Now some cruise ships run from Odaiba are to Nihonbashi. On the other hand, waterbuses also runs from Asakusa to around Odaiba, but they do not stop at Nihonbashi. In addition, although there are waterbuses from Haneda Airport to Nihonbashi, they are not equipped enough to use casually. They takes about 40 minutes, so the difference of time between waterbus and train is not so far.
Considering these facts, I provide a waterbus station and hotel complex for the opening of Tokyo Olympic 2020.* Nihonbashi takes 10 minutes' walk to Tokyo Station, and it is convenient for tourists to go everywhere they want to go by Shinkansen (bullet train in Japan).
Besides, a shortage of hotel is concerned when the Olympic starts. aim to give tourists special experience by creating a symbolic space that represents the time-accumulation of Tokyo and the infrastructural scale of Syutoko Highway.
The Shape of Tokyo's Infrastructure
The multiple layers of memory, the changing of diverse values, are expressed by the architecture that mimics the shape of the Metropolitan Expressway and the ship.
The 202.0-meter tower can be seen from various distances, speeds, and scales, including people walking from Showa Street, ships on the Nihonbashi River, and cars on the Metropolitan Expressway. As one uses, walks, and experiences this architecture, one may feel the form of the ship in one's mind. Some see the Metropolitan Expressway running over the Nihombashi Bridge as ugly, while others see it as a reminder of the Olympics. In order to accommodate diverse values, the architecture shows a different expression for each. And when you look up at the tower, you will regain your sky.
Twisting wall like Roadway
The surrounding wall is about six meters wide, as if Shutoko Highway was rising directly into the sky. It twists and rises little by little, and the shape of each floor changes little by little. Although composed of the same wall, each floor shows a different expression. It is similar to the way Mt. Fuji shows various expressions depending on the day, weather and time. By twisting the surrounding walls, they become resistant to vertical loads, and the gaps between the walls become openings.
03. WEAVE WAVE
Temporary Fence Design Contest
2017.09 - 2017.11
Juror: Nobuaki Furuya, Maki Onishi Tokiwabashi, Tokyo
Special Prize
In the past, the small scale of architecture made it easy to understand the daily changes in the building's construction, and the daily changing construction landscape was open to the city.
Today, as buildings have become larger and larger, the transition has become much slower and more distant from people, beyond our understanding. In addition, temporary fencing has been installed for safety reasons, and we are increasingly unable to feel the changes in the city.
Therefore, designed a temporary fence as an interface through which one can feel the architecture being built in the city every minute, even in the short time it takes to walk past a construction site. This allows visitors to enjoy the dynamic changes of the city through the construction site.
The use of polycarbonate corrugated sheets distorts the landscape behind the corrugated sheets due to their rippling shape, creating a temporary enclosure that changes in a variety of ways depending on the location.
Making the Environment Uneven
The basic operation is to create wave sized pixels by vertically intersecting and overlapping the wave directions. When the view is seen through the pixels, the view becomes clearer when approaching and fuzzier when moving away, due to the effect of the wave plate.
Using this phenomenon, the clarity of the construction site changes according to the distance from the temporary enclosure. Up close, you can see the construction site clearly, but away from it, you can see only the silhouette, and depending on the position from which you are looking, the view changes in various ways.
Various Polycarbonate to Unevenness
Three methods were used to create further diversity. First, used three types of corrugated sheets with different pitches and combined them to create various overlaps. Next, lined up 600 and 900 square corrugated sheets to form the pattern shown in the figure. For the first layer of corrugated sheets lined up on one side, this pattern is staggered in the second and third layers and placed in layers. The direction, number and type of corrugated sheets change from place to place, creating an unevenness (diversity) in the walking space, and the landscape changes nonlinearly as one walks along the temporary enclosure. In some places, you can see the expressions of people working at the construction site, while in other places you can vaguely see the silhouettes of heavy machinery and standing buildings.
Interactivity between inside and outside
Walking along the temporary enclosures with their various expressions, you can enjoy the changing scenery of the construction site and encounter the process of building a city. On the other hand, the people at the construction site can feel the connection with the city through the dim view of the outside, and have a sense that they are building a city. This temporary enclosure creates a connection between the outside and the inside of the construction site, and allows people to share in the dynamics of the city.
04. PARASITIC METABOLISM
Koichi Kato Studio (Architectural Design Studio #7) 2018.04 - 2018.06
Instructor: Koichi Kato Shinbashi, Tokyo
The Tokyo branch of Shizuoka Broadcasting System and Shizuoka Shimbun, one of the Metabolism buildings, seems to be difficult for users to use due to its smallness, as its functions are grouped in a shaft. In addition, the interior has few openings, making it a closed and dark space.
Metabolism was proposed as a strategy to cope with Japan's rapid economic growth in the 1960s, but today, Japan has completed its growth phase and is gently shrinking. How can Metabolism architecture, which was an idea of growth, be interpreted today? Is Metabolism architecture a legacy of the past, an idea that has been defeated by the times?
The purpose of this project was to make Shizuoka Broadcasting System, which has an overwhelming presence, more attractive by using the surrounding context. Reinterpreting Metabolism and opening up its closed system to its surroundings.
RE:Thinking Metabolism
Metabolism was devised as a strategy to cope with postwar national reconstruction and economic growth. Kenzo Tange proposed an architecture in which units extend, grow, and metabolize like leaves from a shaft. The idea was presented in the Tokyo Plan 1960 and the Tsukiji Development Plan, but although there were some experimental examples, Metabolism was never actually realized.
In the Tsukiji area, Kenzo Tange launched the Tsukiji Plan, a three-dimensional redevelopment plan with a structure in which the floor crosses the air between multiple cores. Although this plan was also never realized, Shizuoka Broadcasting System is a
partial realization of that plan.
The Shizuoka Broadcasting System was designed by Kenzo Tange, and its authenticity was emphasized, and no intervention was made. However, I interpreted metabolism as architecture being updated, and attempted to update it along with the surrounding miscellaneous buildings.
This symbolic form renews the closed image of Metabolism architecture and the multitenant buildings in Ginza.
Opening the Closed System and Program
By connecting Shizuoka Broadcasting System to the upper floors of the miscellaneous buildings in the city district, I attempted to open up those closed systems. By bringing the broadcasting station, a program that needs to be able to transmit information, into the miscellaneous buildings, open spaces such as galleries are created, and the entire area is opened up to the city.
The human scale is created by the narrow gaps between the columns and the gaps in the slabs, and the urban scale is created by the voids created by the reduction and the exposed structure.
Interweaving Public and Private Sharing Vertical Circulation
Multi-Tenant Building Scale
Shizuoka Broadcasting Corporation is located at the apex of an acute-angle triangle city block between Sotobori Street and the Tokyo Highway, and has a very symbolic character. It must be equipped with an urban scale to Tokyo's infrastructure. On the other hand, it must also respond to the human walking scale of the Sotobori-dori streetscape, based on pillar spans and sash divisions. thought that both the urban scale and the human scale could be found in the typology of multi-tenant buildings with narrow frantage and rugged structures.
Ginza has a very large number of ,ulti-tenant buildings, but in recent years many of them are becoming vacant tenants. In particular, the upper floors are less popular than the lower floors, and there are many vacant tenants even though rents are set lower. In addition, many of these buildings were built 50 to 60 years ago and need to be repaired or demolished in Japan, which is prone to earthquakes.
In light of this, the upper floors of the six buildings in the district will be renovated, with Shizuoka Broadcasting Corporation taking the lead.
Open spaces, such as galleries and cafes, and closed spaces, such as offices, are adjacent and intertwined, creating a mutual relationship.
Share elevators to balance intricate and complex systems with easy access.
Connection between Gaps Void by Removing Slabs
Gaps between slabs and buildings are connected by stairs, creating a variety of relationships and experiences between homogenous floors.
The floor is removed to ensure earthquake resistance and at the same time create a dynamic void that exposes the structure.
Interweave Programs and Space
Media offices tend to be closed systems, as they must be kept free of public access for security reasons. Therefore, by carefully interweaving the broadcasters' galleries and offices next to each other, we were able to have indirect connections without direct access, such as being able to see the recording site or the gallery from work. As the multi-tenant buildings share a structure with each other, the boundary between
each building becomes blurred.At the same time, the spatiality of each building becomes apparent through gaps in the slabs, changes in the span of the columns, and the interiorization of the exterior walls, creating a contrast. As one walks through the gallery, the narrow space of the multi-tenant building and the large void space created by the reduction of the building appear alternately, creating a mixed spatial experience.
Parasite on Multi-tenant Buildings
The spaces of each building are connected in three dimensions, and the homogenous and closed space has been transformed into a diverse and open space. The original space was greatly transformed by the intervention of the Shizuoka Broadcasting System program. The Shizuoka Broadcasting System is eroding old multi-tenant buildings. This is the parasitic metabolism born from the reconsideration of metabolism architecture.
05. GREEN CORRIDOR
Architectural Design Studio #6 2017.11 - 2018.01
Instructor: Akiko Okabe, Yoshiyuki Tanaka, Kei Kaihoh Kodaira, Tokyo
Honorable Mention
Presentation at Kodaira Welfare Hall as a Representative
In Kodaira City, located in the western suburbs of Tokyo, there is a scene of long, narrow city blocks with a frontage of about 30 meters and extending 400 meters to 1 km from north to south. This is a remnant of the development of roadside villages in the early Edo period, and shows that human activity was part of the natural cycle.
Today, it is difficult for humans to maintain a connection with nature. Perhaps architecture is for humans. Therefore, I will create a place where humans and nature overlap here in Kodaira, away from the city center and maintaining a moderate distance from nature.
Birds, insects, and other animals will come and go between the green base and the green corridor to form a living area. With this architecture, intended to enrich human activities and at the same time help animals to expand their network. In order to keep the distance between humans and nature, one of the many long and narrow city blocks is shared as a green corridor. Even if we can't see each other directly, there will always be a connection.
Remaining irrigation canals and green spaces
water train open garden
Nobidomeirrigationchannel
SayamaSakaigreenpath
Contexts around the site
Life in Suburban Area
Kodaira City is located approximately 45 minutes to an hour away from the center of Tokyo. The suburbs of Tokyo are home to families with children and elderly people, and a relaxed atmosphere prevails. Farmland has been converted into residential land, so that farmland and residential land are next to each other, and some people work in the city while farming. Living there has the potential to combine engaging in tertiary industry with a fundamental life in contact with nature.
Strip-Paper-like Blocks
Kodaira City was created in the early Edo period (1603-1868) when the Tamagawa Canal was built to make the land available for farming, and Ogawa Village was born. In order for everyone to enjoy the benefits of the Tamagawa canal equally, the road village was developed with a long and narrow land layout perpendicular to the Ome Highway that runs parallel to the Tamagawa canal, and the pattern of strip farmland has been carried over to the present day. In the long and narrow land, houses were built facing the Ome Kaido road, and the field land continued everywhere, with wooded areas beyond. The dead leaves of the thickets were used as humus, and there used to be an interaction of humans tending the thickets.
The site faces Ome Highway and is about 30 meters in size from east to west and about 380 meters from north to south.
In 1944, there are a lot of agricultural lands. Also, we cand see green path along the irrigation channel clearly.
There are two nearby stations, and the site is easily accessible from the station.
Opengarden
There are many open gardens in Kodaira, where gardeners open their gardens to the public. In addition, Kodaira City maintains a greenway, so many kinds of plants can be seen in Kodaira. In addition to the greenery remaining in the water supply and farmland, these green hubs contribute to the formation of an ecological network, and residents can enjoy these greenery on foot.
There is a line of greenery along Ogawa irrigation channel, Tamagawa canal, and strips of land.
The south of the site is residential, and the west is a mix of residential and agricultural land.
Ome Kaido runs east to west, and you can see that the city blocks are formed along it.
